When it started to criticize its own certainties, humanity left childhood and entered the productive world. The debate on the nature of truth, the scale of real values, the life one should aspire to live, the character of justice, the sources of law, the terms of civic and political life began.

The unexamined life is not worth living, and one remains indifferent to it at a very heavy price.

The major themes within the Long Debate are presented and considered in the course of 60 lectures. The persistent themes are seen as problems.

• The problem of knowledge , arising from concerns as to how or whether we come to know anything, and are justified in our belief that this knowledge is valid and sound
• The problem of conduct , arising from the recognition that our actions, too, require some sort of justification in light of our moral and ethical sensibilities—or lack of them
• The problem of governance , which includes an understanding of sources of law and its binding nature.

The great speculators of history have exhausted themselves on these problems and have given us a storehouse of insights, some so persuasive as to have shaped thought itself. The leaders of Renaissance thought will be heard in these lectures.

You will learn about the architects of the Age ofNewton and the Enlightenment that followed in its wake, as well as Romanticism and Continental thought, as well as Freud and William James. The plans and purposes, the values and beliefs, the possibilities and vulnerabilities are just some of the things that are discussed in this course.

Some of what you will learn.

You will in these lectures.

• Explore three basic philosophical questions: What can I know? How should I behave? Is this tribe or polis able to preserve our knowledge, protect our interests, lead us to a more meaningful life?
• Understand why we should aspire to moral excellence through habitual striving and a devotion to self-perfection, and how we might attain a flourishing form of life.
• Explore the four assessments of what constitutes the good life. These have come and gone over the course of time in many forms.

The scope of the lectures is revealed by their titles. Every lecture has substance that can change your view of the world.

The creation of rational thought will be shown to you. In one lecture, Dr. Daniel N. Robinson explains how a rich tapestry of thought began in ancient Greece and how it would never be equaled.

The pagan philosopher, who was willing to die for truth, was the most famous. All of Western philosophy was a footnote to Plato because he wrote so powerfully on almost every issue in philosophy. Russell described Plato as a Fascist.

How we live determines our character.

Plato had the most fruitful mind in human history. His work on friendship and the good life has never been surpassed. ristotle makes clear that our character is shaped by our works. We make ourselves into the sorts of beings we are because of the way we conduct our lives.

The debt of civilization to Roman law and to Islamic scholars who preserved and extended Greek thought while Europe became a backwater in the Dark Ages are explored in the lectures after Greece.

Francis Bacon defended the scientific mode of knowledge in the 17th century. The central source of learning is experience. He observed that falling in love with words was as foolish as falling in love with a picture.

René Descartes, inventor of analytic geometry, was not a fan of the program to rely on experience. Professor Robinson had a reply to Descartes.

The Scottish philosopher is joking when he gets to Descartes. It’s referred to as a sum. . Descartes wouldn’t accept his existence until he could come up with a very good rational argument. A man who thinks he is made of glass is no more fit to be reasoned with than a man who believes in his own existence.

There are ideas that affect democracy.

The course carefully examines the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Reid, and their impact on the new democracy in America.

Human freedom was undermined by the Enlightenment program of scientific knowledge because a world completely determined by material causes made freedom an illusion. The course examines the ongoing debate over whether there can be moral acts in a world that is determined by causality.

The course shows how this debate is amplified in the German Romantic thought of Goethe and Schiller, in which freedom becomes the defining feature of human being. The lectures show how the argument for freedom takes on a full, dark, and possibly more honest aspect.

The course looks at the collision between the inherently social understanding of meaning created by Wittgenstein and the vastly different estimation of human thought created by Alan Turing.

The concept of reality itself is examined in further lectures unique to the second edition of this course.

• Do ideas of natural law and moral reality exist in the larger universe, independent of us or our sentiments?
• How should moral problems affect medical and ethical decisions?
• Is war ever justified?

You will learn about the evolution of natural law theory through the writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. The principles for engaging in and conducting war are set forth in the theories of a just war.

We take a look at history’s greatest theological debates about the existence of God after exploring the concepts of aesthetic and beauty.

A great teacher.

The integration of a lifelong student of these issues who has thought and published in every area covered by these lectures is what this course is about. Professor Robinson is one of the few teachers who can create an enjoyable learning environment because of his tremendous respect for his audience, vast expertise, relish for language, and engaging rhetorical flair.

The ideas of philosophy are made exciting, passionate, human, and divine by Dr. Robinson. Professor Robinson explains multiple disciplines like no one has before. His scope is amazing. A professor. It is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to enjoy these tapes.